Tech

Nokia and Microsoft: True Love or a Marriage of Convenience?

In the light of yesterday’s well-received unveiling of the new Nokia Lumia 925 flagship phone, we grabbed 15 minutes with Nokia’s VP of European Sales and Marketing, Chris Weber, and asked him where Nokia’s future lies.

His response? Unequivocally in “the Windows Phone camp”. But why has the Finnish mobile giant so recklessly thrown all its eggs into a basket lined with the most derided of operating systems when its very survival is in question?

Simply it seems because everyone at Nokia, from developers to execs, is convinced the Windows ecosystem offers the most coherent and future proof service for customers.

“The problem we have,” comments Weber, “is not the offering itself. We know when people get it (Lumia phone) in their hands, they love the Windows interface and the Live Tiles and these act as our differentiators. It’s the execution and the gritty details – how do we bring to life our story with Microsoft and get the message out that there is an alternative (to Android and iOS)?”

"Microsoft has the broadest ecosystem across phone, tablet, PC and XBOX – what we call the digital lifestyle"“There are two reasons we bet on Microsoft. First, we felt we could differentiate, so we’re partnering tightly with them, and specifically on imaging. Second, Microsoft has the broadest ecosystem across phone, tablet, PC and XBOX – what we call the digital lifestyle, and that’s something that’s not talked about enough. Cloud services like Skydrive, Search by Bing, XBOX gaming assets and Skype… this is a whole set of things we define as the digital lifestyle and being able to tie all that together makes us very excited about being in bed with Microsoft.”

He’s undoubtedly got a point. The Microsoft ecosystem is far-reaching and well established, and Nokia Lumia represents the very best Windows Phone has to offer. But it’s still hamstrung by the historically poor press, a generally negative consumer perception that it’s always going to be second fiddle to Android and Apple, and this sense of a last-minute last stand for survival. The consumer is not convinced.

But Weber argues the tide is turning. “We’re making progress. We sold 4.4million Lumia devices worldwide in Q4 2012, then 5.6million in Q1 2013 and we said we’d grow even faster in Q2.” Compare that though with Apple, which shifted 47.8million units in Q1 2013, or Android, which holds a huge 75 per cent of the market selling around 156million units in the same period, and you see the size of the mountain Nokia has to climb. “We do want to make progress faster,” continues Weber, “and now with the launch of the 928 and 925 we finally have a complete portfolio of devices with a flagship phone exclusive to each of the major US operators (the Lumia 920 on AT&T, the 928 on Verizon and the 925 on T-Mobile), and we’re excited about that. We’re absolutely committed to Windows.”

"We have a lot of work to do on execution"As for target market – who and how they will continue to bring into the Nokia fold, Weber seems less certain. “I would say the one thing that really differentiates Nokia is the imaging experience. Whether it’s the low-light capabilities, the Optical Image Stabilizer, Cinemagraph, PhotoBeamer…” or as we saw with the 925 launch and its reliance on its Smart Camera to stand it apart from the competition, “what we do is open up a whole new market and give different options to consumers. So we have switchers coming from Android and iOS for that already with the Lumia 920, and the same thing will happen with the 925.” Hardly concrete evidence of a burgeoning future success, especially when so many of these USP imaging features can be downloaded on other platforms in the form of apps, but Weber seems unperturbed by this. His real focus is on ‘telling the story’.

“What we have to do collectively is… help people understand the real integration from phone to PC to XBOX. If we look at the Net Promoter Score (how much consumers like the device and would recommend it to others), we have some of the highest NPS for Lumia devices that Nokia has ever had. But we have a lot of work to do on execution – not the pretty stuff like creating great devices, but on the stuff that really makes us different.”

Yes they’ve got a long way to go, but on the enthusiasm of its staff and the quality of recent devices like the 925, I wouldn’t write off Nokia just yet.

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